Dangling down here like the neglected foreskin of America, we're expecting Saturday's Occupy Miami protest to spiral out of control. Mark our words: There will be food trucks. There will be reggaeton blaring. Someone will bring up Fidel or Chavez. Yes, the Everglades need to be saved and the Port tunnel project canceled, but Occupy Miami is not the right place for all that regional handwringing.
The point of Saturday's meetup is to show solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, a protest against economic inequality and corporate greed. Why are we allowing our electoral and economic systems to benefit only one percent of population? (Hear more in this compelling video.)
So lest Saturday's event become a pachanga with schizophrenic demands, watch the following seven documentaries and keep the focus: We are the 99%.
7. The Corporation
Corporations in America have personhood -- that is, they have all the rights
afforded to actual individuals. But as this film shows, when an
"individual" like Johnson & Johnson is profiled by say an FBI
psychiatrist, the corporation has all the characteristics of a
prototypical psychopath. They have flagrant disregard for the well-being of
others, are unable to form lasting relationships, and are constantly
deceitful.
6. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
In case The Corporation wasn't enough to enrage you, this 2005 documentary profiles a specific evil corporation, Enron, and its downfall. The bastards are actually caught on film joking about stealing money from your grandmas. Best description is the film: Enron was a bunch of former nerds on a power trip.
5. Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices
Need more proof that corporations are ballshit evil? See this 2005 doc about the behemoth WalMart. Americans may think Walmart is on their side for offering some of the lowest prices on the market. But as the documentary shows, those savings have dire consequences elsewhere -- in surrounding independent businesses and in the lives of Walmart employees, who struggle for wage equality and fair benefits. Hope you enjoy that $1.99 toaster, one of the cashiers just lost health insurance.
4. Maxed Out
Here's an exposé of how your credit card company bends you over each month and injects you full of interest fees while you get buried under an avalanche of debt. Ain't shopping fun?
3. Capitalism: A Love Story
You knew there had to be a Michael Moore movie in here somewhere. You
could watch Sicko, which reveals health insurances companies for what they are --
greedy vampires with no empathy for the sick or dying. But his targeted
documentary about the injustices of capitalism is this one. Years before Occupy Wall Street was a glimmer in
Adbusters' eye, Moore showed up to NYC financial centers with canvas bags and demanded
Americans' money back. And as long as
you're on a Moore kick, might as well flip back to his 1989 Roger & Me for a
look at how General Motors killed Detroit.
Just more fuel for your corporate haterade.
2. The Yes Men
These pranksters impersonate criminal corporate goons to expose their nefarious activities. At a Canadian oil conference, they pretended to be an Exxxon executive and made a presentation. They announced that U.S. and Canadian energy policies were screwed because of impeding environment calamities. But they could keep fuel flowing by converting dead people killed by these calamities into oil.
1. Inside Job
Why are we in this recession? It's effing complicated, but this documentary explains it so well, it won the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. It shows how businesses are permitted to bet against the very services they are selling. What's more enraging is that plenty of the villains in the film have been appointed to government positions or head major corporations even after they crashed our freaking economy. Well done, America.
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